Forsyth County, GA Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

Section 38-49(a) folds the county's burning rules into the Georgia EPD's statewide Rules for Air Quality Control, chapter 391-3-1, and then piles Forsyth-specific restrictions on top. Agricultural fires, forestland burning, leaf and yard-debris piles, recreational and cooking fires, firefighter training burns, and small contractor warming fires can go forward without a fee or county permit, but each carries its own limits, such as leaf piles capped at six feet across and two feet high, kept 50 feet from any structure and 25 feet from a property line, and never lit when humidity drops below 25 percent or wind tops 10 mph.

Bonfires, disease and pest-control burns, and emergency storm-debris burns need a free Fire Department permit, while land-clearing burns using an air curtain destructor need a $500 permit good for 30 days, extendable 15 more days on written request. Aerial luminaries, such as sky lanterns and fire balloons, and the burning of household garbage, trash or construction debris are banned outright under subsection (e), with no permit able to authorize them. From May through September, subsection (g) shuts down every category of burning except recreational and cooking fires, firefighter training, open-flame equipment, explosives-packing disposal, small contractor fires, disease and pest control, and emergency burning; nothing else may be lit during those five months regardless of any other permit.

and one hour before sunset under subsection (h), and the fire marshal can revoke any permit or order any fire extinguished if weather, complaints or danger to the public warrant it.